An electrical connection can be made between two electrical devices, usually using a male and female electrical contact. One part of the connection has a male contact with an electrical pin and the other part is a female contact in the form of a socket for receiving the male contact.
Known female contacts include a female contact formed of a cylindrical base, the base having a stamped four finger clip inserted into one end. Examples of such known contacts are those of the Datamate and Micro D range that are manufactured by Harwin PLC. One problem with this type of contact is that, on a miniature scale, it is difficult to form the base and clip because these must be formed of very thin material that will not have the mechanical strength required to survive the insertion of the clip into the base. This problem is a significant barrier in the design and manufacture of complex miniature scale electrical contacts. In the present specification the term ‘miniature’ should be understood to mean length scales of the order of approximately a tenth of a millimeter up to a centimeter or so.
Known contacts are typically manufactured by stamping or die cutting one or more shapes out of a flat sheet of material and subsequently folding this shape up to form the finished contact. One such contact is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,787 to Serbin et al. The folding step in this process has to be done accurately and carefully to ensure that the contact produced is of precisely the correct shape and dimensions. Further, after the folding step some sort of joining, sealing, gluing or welding must take place to form the finished contact.